My kids have loved dinosaurs since they were very young. My 4 year old is the bigger dinosaur lover of the two – he can name several different dinosaurs, tell you specific details about each one and he can point them out in pictures and know which one is which and rarely makes a mistake when doing that. 

We went to Dinosaur Adventure in Nashville, TN a few years ago (pre-pandemic) and we had a blast. It was held at a very large venue and the place was packed with activities for the kids as well as life-size (well, as life-size as they could work with when dealing with a building with a ceiling) dinosaurs and even I can say it was awesome looking on the inside. My kids loved it and I was excited when I saw they were coming back to Nashville again this year. 

This year, the event was held at the Nashville Fair Grounds (significantly smaller than their previous venue we went to years back) and honestly, I liked that much better. On our previous visit, we had to find a parking lot in Nashville (which is almost impossible to do during the middle of the day – and find that one that is also affordable and offers a good amount of parking time) and once we finally found one, we still had close to a 25 minute walk to the venue in the dead of winter. It was a little rough! This year, however, parking was AWESOME. We were able to park at the fairgrounds and it was only a $5 parking fee for an unlimited amount of time – and about a 1 minute walk to the building itself. I was thrilled. 

It takes me about an hour to get to Nashville from where I live, and traffic isn’t always predictable so we left about an hour and a half early and we were the first ones there (30 min before the event opened) so we got the closest parking spot and we got to watch them set up from our parking spot through the huge windows that we were facing. That was fun for the kids! 

Kids’ tickets come with 3 activity tickets that you can use inside. Any other activities will require purchased tickets.

When you walk in, you are greeted with a huge prehistoric walkway and immediately after that comes the dinosaurs! Each dinosaur had an info panel in front of it and they moved around! Take a look:

Those are just a few of what we were able to see when we first walked in. After you make your way through the dinosaur trail, you walk into the activity area. They had Jeep rides, dinosaurs that you could “drive around,” a choice between two dinosaurs that you could climb up on and ride (think – carousel rides but just one animal by itself that moves up and down), some bounce house activity centers, a dino dig area, a cave area where you could find fossils and rocks, and more!

Our experience took about an hour and a half. We were one of the first ones inside, so we didn’t have to wait in any long lines for any of the activities. The staff were all very friendly and helpful when I had a few questions as we walked around. I am so glad I took my kids back this year. I do think the venue was smaller due to the pandemic. The nice thing was that this year they required you to buy tickets online for specific time frames- I believe this helped to regulate how many people were in the building at a certain time together. The staff members also wore masks (I have no opinion about the masks either way but I’m sure this was a comfort measure for those who were concerned about masks being worn). 

We will definitely go back next year if we get the opportunity to do so! I love making memories like this with my boys. I highly recommend you check out Dinosaur Adventure if they come to your area! They are always adding new cities to their website, so keep checking back!

If they are in your area, you can use this coupon code (usfam10) here to get a discount on your tickets.

https://hashtagboymom.family.blog/2022/01/06/our-experience-at-dinosaur-adventure-in-nashville-tn/